1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a drill machine mountable to a rail of a railway track and, more particularly, to a rail shoe assembly coupled to the drill machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the railway industry, holes often need to be drilled into a rail having a rail profile for various applications. For example, to combine different sections of rail, a connecting plate (also commonly referred to a fishplate) is used to reinforce and connect two sections of rail to one another. To properly use a connecting plate, multiple holes must be drilled into each of the sections of rail.
Prior to connecting different sections of rail with the connecting plate, a drill machine is used to drill a predetermined number of holes in the rail. Generally, each hole is drilled at a predetermined location, which is typically determined based on the particular rail profile.
Typically, the drill machine includes a drill, a cutter coupled to the drill, a support frame coupled to the drill, and a rail shoe assembly mounted to the frame. To accommodate for different rail profiles, different rail shoe assemblies are typically used. However, due to the number of different industry standard rail profiles, use of a different rail shoe assembly for each different rail profile can become tedious, and often adds assembly time, drilling time, and overall cost to drilling.
Accordingly, it is advantageous to use a single rail shoe assembly to accommodate different rail profiles. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a rail shoe assembly that is able to accommodate different rail profiles, which eliminates the need to have multiple rail shoe assemblies.